drink up, me hearties, yo ho

[pauraque_bk]

We rented PotC this holiday. I'd already seen it in the theater, but I think I liked it better on second viewing (perhaps because I wasn't seeing it as part of an awkward social occasion).

Liked it so much better, in fact, that the result is several hundred words of pirate slash. It's one of those stories that just hit my brain fully-formed (while we were watching a different movie, in fact), and had to get out *right then*. Once it's all written out, it may not turn out to be suitable for public consumption, but I'm having a good time with it. Talk about your fun character voices....

In any case, I have a plot question. I realize that trying to make perfect sense of a summer movie may be a fool's errand, but humor me. When Bill Turner Sr. took a piece of the gold, he must have incurred the curse too, and must still have been cursed when the crew sent him to sleep with the fishes. In which case, shouldn't he still have been down there when they realized they needed his blood to lift the curse? Wouldn't the logical thing be to go back and find him? Or am I missing something?

Comments

[ex_amurderofcrows752]

I think ol' Bootstrap Bill was 'curse free' due to the fact that he opposed the theft. He didn't take any from the chest, but he DID take it from another pirate.

At least, that's what I gathered.

I could be wrong. But it could be that, well, he's at the fucking bottom of the OCEAN man. They probably didn't dump him in a cove -- if they dumped him in chains, they probably did it in deep water. Now, he may not have tired or anything-- but if they bound him/weighed him, he probably sank...

...and if the fish didn't eat him little by little, suddenly becoming mortal after 20 years under water, well, fuck, he's dead THEN. :O

[pauraque]

I think ol' Bootstrap Bill was 'curse free' due to the fact that he opposed the theft. He didn't take any from the chest, but he DID take it from another pirate.

But then why did they need his blood? We know they only needed the blood of people who took from the chest, because if they needed blood from everyone who'd just *had the gold*, they'd have needed Elizabeth's blood too.

But it could be that, well, he's at the fucking bottom of the OCEAN man.

True. It may have taken them a long time for them to figure out that they needed him, after which they had no idea where the hell they'd dropped him off.

...and if the fish didn't eat him little by little, suddenly becoming mortal after 20 years under water, well, fuck, he's dead THEN. :O

Indubitably! He's dead by the end of the movie, unless he *was* cursed when he went under, and pulled a Houdini before the curse was lifted. Which wouldn't be impossible, since he had years to free himself and walk back to land.

[pauraque]

On second thought, it's not so much that they would have needed Elizabeth's blood -- they already had it in the chest, whether they knew they needed it or not -- but if they needed the blood of anyone who'd had a piece of the gold, they'd have needed *everyone* who'd ever handled if after they spent it. Quite impossible!

[-sophieg.livejournal.com]

I think they only needed the blood of those who'd taken the gold in the first place.

With regards to your original question, I noticed that myself. The only assumption I can make is the poor guy must have been stuck on the bottom of the ocean for ten years, before he suddenly became mortal again.

I think it was probably an error in the writing of it, actually.

[pauraque]

I think it was probably an error in the writing of it, actually.

*nods* The only reason I bothered to ask is that I listened to some of the screenwriters' commentary, and they struck me as having put a lot of thought into the mechanics of the curse, so I thought I might have missed something.

[typicrobots.livejournal.com]

I always just figured that he took the gold piece off another pirate. And that the "blood repaid" meant the blood of anyone who fell victim to the greed of the pirates when it came to the gold.

I could be wrong. I try not to think about it much. I'd much rather look at pretty Johnny. Oooh, pretty.

[pauraque]

And that the "blood repaid" meant the blood of anyone who fell victim to the greed of the pirates when it came to the gold.

Or, hey-- the movie's called Curse of the Black Pearl, so maybe they needed the blood of anyone who was on the crew at the time of the theft.

I'd much rather look at pretty Johnny. Oooh, pretty.

Hee. Yes indeed.

[aretina.livejournal.com]

Jack Sparrow only becomes cursed after he "accepts" a position on the Black Pearl and takes the gold-- so clever. By being cast off the ship, Bootstrap may have been "fired" in a rather spectacular way, before the curse had made itself known, and thus was no longer part of the Black Pearl's crew and no longer part of the curse.

I'm thinking that Barbossa never expelled nor released any of the rest of the crew, leaving them cursed as he was.

[pauraque]

Hm, now that's interesting. If that's the case, then Barbosa comes off even nastier -- though of course he wouldn't have been motivated by sadism, but by the fact that he needed everyone he could get to help him find all the coins. Adds a little something to the mutiny scene in the film, I think.

Now, it could just be me

[theseventhsun.livejournal.com]

Yeah, yeah, you don't know me, but I'm posting anyway.


My own theory on this matter, and I've pondered it before, is that the crew of the Black Pearl wasn't "invincible" per se. They couldn't die in most conventional means, but they could still be smashed to bits with enough effort- as an example, I think it's assumed that even before the curse is lifted, Mr. Bombadier (the grenade-chucking pirate) is, after having one of his own explosives going off in his chest, out of commission for good. Being trapped under millions of pounds of pressure at the bottom of the ocean would have a similar effect.

Re: Now, it could just be me

[pauraque]

Well, we know that cursed body parts can remain 'alive' after severed from their owners, like the disembodied hand, so perhaps it's possible for accursèd persons to pull themselves back together after being dismembered.

But on the whole, I'd agree with you -- even if they'd gone back to look for Bootstrap, there may not have been much left to find, and they themselves may not have been able to make it all the way down there without being crushed by the pressure.

Re: Now, it could just be me

[sedesdraconis.livejournal.com]

That was my thought. There's definitely some reference to consigning him to the "deeps". I figured he was pretty crushed down. Hard to move down there. Hard to be found.